


the way that you talk

by thecrackshiplollipop



Category: Fear the Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/F, Queer the walking dead - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-11
Updated: 2016-04-11
Packaged: 2018-06-01 16:05:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6526843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecrackshiplollipop/pseuds/thecrackshiplollipop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Most of what Alicia hears on the radio makes her sick. The world beyond the deck of the Abigail is falling apart and she's helpless to do anything but listen. She's about ready to give up hope when a voice cuts through the cacophony, speaking directly to <i>her</i>. She has no idea who this Elyza person is, but something about her voice, something about the way she says Alicia's name, makes the girl feel a little less alone. A little less sad.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the way that you talk

Alicia flicks through the channels, adjusting, listening, her chest feeling heavier each time she switches to a new one. Channel 14 is incessant chatter about death and destruction. Channel 15 is more of the same, someone shouting into the void about the walking dead, about their dying mother, about the end of the world. She adjusts the channel again, holding her head close to the speaker to hear through the static. 

She settles on channel 16 with a sigh, twisting the knobs to zero in on the frequency. A woman’s voice shifts and filters out of focus as a song picks up. The wind whips through her hair, tugs at her clothes, and the song is good, distracting. Even though it makes her miss her phone and her music library, it’s nice to hear something other than the tales from the apocalypse. 

“Hello?” A voice crackles out on top of the song and Alicia’s jaw drops in surprise. “Helloooo? Anybody out there? Anyone…alive?” It’s a woman’s voice, gravelly and deep and accented, something Alicia can’t immediately place.

“ _Hellooooo_ ,” the voice calls again. Alicia’s thumb hovers over the call button and she swallows, the music fading back in as the voice drops out. A sigh comes a second later, some garbled, muffled something in the background, and then the song fades away again as the voice returns.

“We’re alive, man. Really. Someone’s gotta be out there. C’mon.”

Alicia’s finger ghosts over the call button but she loses the nerve, letting go immediately. She hears a soft gasp on the other end.

“Is someone there? Is someone _there_?! …You’re not gonna get this song out of your head, now.” There’s a pause and Alicia scrubs her forehead in frustration, pointlessly pushing her windswept bangs away from her face. 

“You’re shy, that’s cool,” the voice drawls and Alicia tries to ignore the way the tone of the woman’s voice sends a shiver up her spine. “Doesn’t seem much point of that now, but, yeah. I get it,” the woman chuckles and Alicia rolls her eyes. “I understand.” There’s a little pause, more of the song filtering through the radio, and Alicia’s eyes flutter closed as she weighs her options. She imagines a woman, maybe a little older than her, somewhere out there who is just as alone and afraid as she is, who is just looking for a connection…just like she is. “C’mon… _please_ talk to me,” the voice dips lower and pulls Alicia’s stomach down with it. “Please say something…Just _say something_ ,” the woman sighs and Alicia takes a deep breath.

“I’m here,” she sighs into the microphone, her thumb pressed to the call button a moment longer before she lets go.

* * *

“I dunno if I should be tellin’ you all my private information, princess,” the woman, Elyza, says slowly. Alicia’s brows furrow slightly.

“Princess?”

“You sound like a princess,” Elyza says simply.

“I’m not,” Alicia purses her lips, “I’m…” Alicia’s not sure _what_ she is, so she just lets it hang, sliding her thumb from the button. She wonders what makes her sound like a princess.

“We’re on land,” Elyza says after a pause. “Only thirty minutes from the coast, actually. We got out of town quick and, well…I hate farms,” Elyza sighs. “But we’re safe.”

“Safe,” Alicia says thoughtfully, “sounds good.”

“You’re on a boat, right?” Elyza hums, like she’s remembering the things Alicia’s already told her. “That’s pretty safe, I think.”

“I hope so,” Alicia sighs.

“Hey, Alicia?”

“Yeah?”

“Where were you? When…when it all happened.” 

Alicia inhales slowly and considers the question, thinks about Matt shivering and sweating in her arms, thinks about Sue Sue grabbing her hair, thinks about Liza.

“Um…”

“You okay?”

Not really. No. 

She hasn’t really thought about it, how everyone else knew _something_ was happening while she was kept in the dark. How she was just there, playing Monopoly by candle light, eating an apple, while the world was unravelling and everyone else just… _let_ her not know.

Let her think Matt was going to be okay.

But then Sue Sue…

 _God_ it’s fucked up.

“It’s…not fair,” she scoffs softly, shaking her head.

“Alicia?”

She takes another quick breath, centring herself before she hits the call button again.

“It was over before I knew it started. It was…all over.”

“I’m sorry,” Elyza’s voice is soft, so much softer than it’s been this whole time. There’s no humour or flirtatious weight behind her words. It’s just a gentleness that wraps itself around Alicia’s bruised, exhausted heart and stays there, almost weightless.

She wonders who the hell this Elyza Lex girl even is.

* * *

“And then I punched him,” Elyza laughs, and Alicia feels herself grinning so hard her cheeks practically hurt. She’s lying on her back, the microphone resting on her chest. She feels good, feels lighter, somehow, and has Elyza’s drawling, brash humour to thank for that.

“That’s a ridiculous story, Elyza. It can’t be true,” she twists onto her side and props her head up on her palm.

“I wouldn’t lie to you, princess,” Elyza chirps and Alicia chuckles, rolling her eyes. “I told you, he flirted with me, and then had the balls to insult my choice of beer. Two strikes and I knocked him out.”

“I’m surprised you let him get past hitting on you,” Alicia teases, running her tongue along her bottom lip as she lets go of the call button.

“Well,” Elyza chuckles, and then drops the line for a moment. In the silence, Alicia tries to conjure up the image of Elyza she offered earlier. Blond hair, blue eyes…in Elyza’s own words a “killer rack”. Alicia can’t fight back the blush and shakes her head, trying to picture the beauty mark above her lip, or how long her blond hair might be. Probably just above her shoulders, Alicia thinks.

“Have you slept?” Elyza asks, suddenly, drawing Alicia back out of her imagination.

“No,” she says, shaking her head, “we’re having dinner soon though. Eel, I think.”

“ _Eel?”_ Elyza gags and Alicia finds herself smiling, again. “That’s horrible, Alicia.”

“We’re making due with what the ocean provides,” Alicia says, attempting a sage tone to her voice.

“Hah. Sure. Well, _we’re_ having deer burgers.”

“ _Deer_ burgers?” Alicia scrunches up her face, “that doesn’t sound any better.”

“They might be good,” Elyza responds lightly, and Alicia laughs. “Well, at least it’s not an eel.”

“Fair point,” Alicia sighs and bites her bottom lip. “Talk to you after dinner?”

“Yeah, princess. It’s a date.”

Alicia makes it a point to ignore the butterflies buffeting her insides as she slides off of the bunk and heads out of the room.

* * *

"Elyza?” 

“Hey, there you are. How was dinner?”

“Oh,” Alicia sighs and stretches out onto her back, cradling the microphone to her chest for a moment while she collects herself. “It was…we’re moving, again,” Alicia says, feeling the rock and sway of the yacht on the water.

“Oh,” Elyza says, keeps her finger on the call button so all Alicia can do is listen to her breathe deeply. “Off to Hawaii, then?”

“I don’t think so,” Alicia tries to laugh but it dies in her throat. “But we’re moving further away from land right now.”

“Right,” Elyza huffs, “well. I guess we don’t have much longer then, yeah?”

“How long do you think the signal will hold?” Alicia feels the weight of losing contact with Elyza like a stone on her chest. She stares at the painted wood of the ceiling overhead and thinks about the stars they might share.

“Not long enough,” is Elyza’s reply. There’s staticky silence again, and Alicia tries not to be panicked by it, tries to find comfort in it, instead. “You need to sleep, Alicia.”

“But then…” Alicia worries her bottom lip between her teeth, keeping her thumb on the call button so Elyza can’t speak over her. She exhales deeply before carrying on. “I’ll miss you.”

“Already?” Elyza laughs, but it doesn’t sound like before, there’s no depth or richness to it, it just sounds strained and fake. Alicia frowns. “I didn’t think I’d have such an effect over the radio.”

“Elyza…”

“I’ll miss you, too, Alicia.” The words hang there like a promise and Alicia feels tension she never knew she was holding leak out of her shoulders. “S’probably too much to hope you lot will land anywhere near my bit of coast, yeah?”

“Probably,” Alicia grumbles.

Silence stretches, again, and Alicia imagines the time she has left to talk to Elyza disappearing into that empty quiet. She’s trying to come up with something to say when she hears the line click again.

“I’m serious about the sleep, Alicia.”

“And I’m serious about…” she can’t fight back the yawn that comes out and her thumb falls from the call button as she scrambles to smother the noise.

“Like I said,” Elyza laughs, this time genuinely. Alicia smiles, even though she hates that Elyza’s right. “Sleep, Alicia.”

“Tell me a story, then.”

“A story? Hmm. I dunno. I only have so many bar brawl stories…”

“Then tell me something else.”

“Like?”

“Like…What if Harry Potter were Australian?”

“That’s…” Elyza chuckles, “that’s terrible.” She pauses, as if pondering it, and Alicia bites the inside of her cheek to keep quiet. “If it’ll get you to sleep…”

“Anything, really,” Alicia sighs. The darkness of the cabin isn’t so bad with Elyza’s voice, smoke-rough but soothing at the same time. She doesn’t want to imagine the silence in the absence of that voice.

“Who can say no to that,” Elyza says slowly. “Well, if Harry Potter were Australian…”

* * *

Alicia’s not sure what jerks her awake. The sounds of the boat haven’t changed, and the radio is still silent near her head. But she’s awake, and stretches sleepily so her back pops pleasantly. 

It’s not quite light outside, but the darkness has eased in her room enough so Alicia can see her feet poking out from under her blanket and the blurry edges of the door just beyond. She microphone is near her hand and, still fuzzy with sleep, she gropes for it and taps the call button, but realises it’s probably not Elyza on the other end anymore. She lets go of the call button and stares at the ceiling, trying to tamp down the disappointment that they never really said goodbye.

The line clicks once, and then again, and then…

“You there, princess?”

Alicia’s heart gives a fluttering leap in her chest and her cheeks go flush with pleasure at hearing that voice again.

“Elyza?” 

“The one and only,” the voice drawls, sounding considerably rougher than it was the night before.

“Why are you still awake?” 

“It’s been almost six hours, Alicia,” Elyza says, and Alicia imagines the tone in her voice means she’s smiling. “I had a nap, though. Just woke up a few minutes ago, myself. Came straight to check on you.”

“Oh.” That explains the rougher tone to her voice, at least. Alicia’s heart gives another frustrating leap at the thought of being the first person Elyza thinks about after waking up.

“How’d you sleep?”

“Pretty good,” Alicia feels silly, but also relieved that Elyza can’t see the dumb smile that stretches her face. “Great, actually, thanks to your retelling of the Sorcerer’s Stone.”

“Glad I could be of service,” Elyza says, and the way she says it, her voice all thick and syrupy, makes Alicia flush all over again. “So hey, I guess we’re not going to lose each other, then?”

“I guess…” Alicia furrows her brows, suddenly being pulled straight through the post-sleep fog that’s been clouding her mind. “I…I need to go see what’s going on. We should’ve lost signal hours ago. I should…” Alicia’s mind is racing and she starts pulling herself towards the edge of her bunk.

“Hey, hey,” Elyza says once Alicia lets go of the microphone to shimmy onto the ground. “Go do your thing, Clark. I’ll be here when you need me.”

Alicia swallows, hard, and reaches up for the microphone. She cradles it to her lips for a second, thinking about someone who should feel like a stranger being there _for her_ when she needs her. She closes her eyes and presses down on the call button.

“I’m gonna hold you to that, Lex,” Alicia huffs, and then tosses the microphone back up onto her bunk. The sound of Elyza’s laughter carries her out into the hall, and she tries to wipe the grin off of her face as she stumbles towards the stairs that’ll lead her up to the main deck.


End file.
